Zetec Gearboxes

[Rocky81]

Hello, I maybe treading on a few toes here but I own a westie SEI Wide body (I know it aint the real thing)

I just had it tuned via Northampton motorsports, it does go quite well now, I am a little dissapointed with the MT75 gearbox - 1st is just way too short!

My question is... Has anyone tried to mate a caterham 6 speed box to a 1.8 Zetec engine?

failing that, does anyone know the possibilty of changing 1st and 2nd in a MT75?

3rd gear is really great but I feel 1st and second should be better

(I am open to jibes about being a westie owner if I get the right info!!)

Cheers

Dan

[CanAm]

Dan,
Shame that nobody's bothered to reply to you. My Supersport has the 6 speed box, so can't speak from personal experience. Caterhams use the Ford Type 9 gearbox (don't know if this is another name for the MT75) and this is well known for having a very low first gear. BGH transmissions do conversions to make them more suitable for Sevens (of 'any' type).
You can find lots of info on this on the Lotus 7 club website (www.213-04.com is a useful alternative URL if you're in the office). Posting is members only but you can still use the 'search' function then 'TechTalk' to find lots of threads on the subject. Feel free to PM me if you need any help.
Alan

[Noger]

Yes, Chris at BGH 01580 714114 is the man. A new set of their cogs will certainly be cheaper than a Caterham 6 speed box (you can fit the 6 speed to a Duratec, so would imagine it would fit to a Zetec).

[Rocky81]

Thanks very much Chaps

I spent the weekend looking into it all and I came across BHG, I will give them a call, many thanks for your help

it upsets me that the MT75 is used at all, it seems that you cannot put different gears in it at all! I dont like the gear box because its hard to get into 2nd gear from 1st with high revs! I know the caterham box doenst suffer with this.... it may have something to do with the fact that it's £2K !!

3rd gear is really great though, I kept up with a Subuaru Sti WRX the other day, I loved it! (Just wouldnt be able to beat it off the lights!)

Thanks once again

Dan

[.Adam.]

I've got an MT75 in my Westie as well, and have wondered about the Caterham 6 speed box. I think that the chassis is different for a type 9 westie(although I may be wrong), so it's not an easy swap from MT75 to Type 9. I'm always amazed that you can't get different ratios for the MT75, as I beleive it was used in Escort Cosworths, and I would have thought that with the amount of tweaks and tuning you seem to be able to do to them, there would have been a market for custom ratios.

[Chris.B]

.Adam. said:

I've got an MT75 in my Westie as well, and have wondered about the Caterham 6 speed box. I think that the chassis is different for a type 9 westie(although I may be wrong), so it's not an easy swap from MT75 to Type 9. I'm always amazed that you can't get different ratios for the MT75, as I beleive it was used in Escort Cosworths, and I would have thought that with the amount of tweaks and tuning you seem to be able to do to them, there would have been a market for custom ratios.

Adam, I had an MT75 box in my Zetec Westfield. After reading around & asking questions on the Westfield boardroom I realised the MT75 to Type 9 swap was not too difiicult at all & quite a lot of people have done it. In the end I plumped for a BGH Type 9 heavy duty box as it had much better ratios for a Westfield and was able to cope with the additional power as my engine had been extensively modified. Took me one weekend to do the swap.